by Jim Allen (Oct 17, 2011)

The Chunichi Dragons' quest for their ninth Central League pennant
and their fourth under outgoing skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai remained on
hold Saturday afternoon after a 12-4 drubbing at the hands of the
Yomiuri Giants.

Alex Ramirez homered in his fourth straight game and drove in four
runs for the Giants, who clinched the Central League's final playoff
spot.

"It means a lot [to be hot] at this time of the season," said
Ramirez, who is hitting .364 since Sept. 1 with nine home runs. "Now,
I've just got to continue."

The Dragons' magic number to clinch a second straight pennant
remained at one. The Giants moved one game behind the idle second-place
Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

The Swallows and Dragons each have three games left, including their
final head-to-head clash on Wednesday in Nagoya. The Giants have one
game remaining.

The Tigers had already announced Mayumi would not be back for the
final year of his contract if the team failed to reach the playoffs.

The Giants opened the scoring with four runs in the third inning off Daisuke Yamai (3-3).

With one out and runners on first and second, Shinnosuke Abe
grounded a hanging forkball into right to make it 1-0. Ramirez singled
in another run, one more scored on a grounder to second by Yoshinobu
Takahashi, and Daisuke Fujimura capped the rally with a sacrifice fly.

Ramirez belted a three-run shot in the fourth before Masaaki Koike's
two-run pinch-hit homer off Giants reliever Levi Romero (1-3) got the
Dragons on the board.

Yamai allowed seven runs in four innings but outlasted Giants
starter Kentaro Nishimura, who was lifted for Romero when the Dragons
loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fourth.

Romero surrendered two runs, on Koike's homer, in 1-1/3 innings to earn the win.

The Dragons added a run in the top of the fifth on a groundout after
Motonobu Tanishige singled to open the inning and Takehiro Donoue
doubled, but any hopes for a pennant-clinching victory died an ugly
death in the bottom of the inning.

Ten Giants batted against reliever Masafumi Hirai, who allowed five runs on five singles, a walk and an error.

Saburo Omura had the fourth straight one-out single off Hirai
driving in a run and leaving the bases loaded. A two-out walk to
pinch-hitter Yoshiyuki Kamei pushed across a run, and another scored
when third baseman Masahiko Morino failed to catch a grounder for an
error.

Takayuki Terauchi singled in two more to complete the carnage.

The Dragons' Tony Blanco homered in the eighth inning for a consolation run.

The Giants' Michihiro Ogasawara, started and had two hits, his first since he was hit with a pitch on Aug. 23.

"The team is very complete with Ogasawara back," said Ramirez, who leads the Giants with 23 homers.